It is clear that unless Congress acts, Social Security benefits will be reduced after the exhaustion of the trust fund in 2032. Projections highlighted in this blog illustrate the magnitude of the problem and the difficulty of measuring the economic effects of various policy reforms.
How much priority should the United States place on preserving NAFTA? Have certain states benefited more than others from NAFTA? Economists have spent the past 20 years working to answer these questions. They are hard to answer because of all… Continue Reading
Much has been said and written about the effects of the (presumed) British exit from the EU. What is clear is that uncertainty is the driving force behind the economic effects to date. So any analysis must first start by… Continue Reading
The UK continues to swoon as it digests the domestic implications of the Leave vote, but for the rest of the world Brexit is more important as a sign of the times. It erased any remaining doubt that popular support… Continue Reading
Why does the Bank of Japan want to lower the exchange rate? Most obviously it seeks improvement in export competitiveness — the beggar-thy-neighbor effect. Continue Reading
Did the Shanghai G-20 meeting lead to a secret agreement to push the major currencies back toward their 2014 levels? The current U.S.-China monetary/exchange rate policy approaches is not so much a new Plaza Accord but more a meeting of the minds. Continue Reading
Through this decision, the IMF signaled that it intends to accelerate and ease the Chinese yuan — or renminbi (RMB) — into the floating exchange rate system. Moving China in that direction will benefit the international economic system. Continue Reading